


the bridge that just won't burn

by dragonyfox



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Magical Tattoos, kind of soul mark au if you squint, man i dont usually write angsty shit but uh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-28
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2019-07-18 18:48:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16124549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonyfox/pseuds/dragonyfox
Summary: Magnus Burnsides has a tattoo that he cannot look at.





	the bridge that just won't burn

**Author's Note:**

> the title is from haunted hearts by sammy kershaw, who i've never heard until literally today while searching for the lyrics to a totally different song.

Magnus Burnsides has a tattoo that he cannot look at.

It's mostly blue, he knows that much. If he squint or covers part of it up, he can see little circles of other colors and some sort of red line. He can also see four white letters that he knows he knows, yet still cannot read.

Julia thinks it's neat, but says it gives her a headache to look at for too long.

"I don't know, Maggie," she says, "it's just like there's a sheet over my brain and I can't think past it. It kinda feels static-y, you know?"

Magnus does know. He's had the tattoo for longer than he can remember, but he can't look at it. Sometimes he thinks it might be a curse, but then something deep in his gut will tell him that it's not. It's the greatest thing to have happened to him, next to marrying his wonderful wife.

He catches himself touching it through his shirt when he's thinking, and sometimes there's the edge of a memory there when he realizes he's touching it again

Sometimes it stings, and he doesn’t know why.

.

Barry Bluejeans does not have a tattoo that he cannot look at.

When he's in lich form, he knows why and misses the tattoo something fierce.

When he's in a reformed body, he knows there's something missing there. He's gotten three separate tattoos there before he realized he should tell himself to stop.

His most recent reformed body is told by the coin that he's missing a tattoo he used to have, and that it's pointless to try to replace it.

He stops replacing it.

.

Merle Highchurch has a tattoo that he cannot look at.

He doesn't often try, of course, and nobody questions why an old dwarf like him wears a shirt on the beach. Not even Heckuba has really looked at it.

"Oh," she said once, "you have a tattoo."

"Oh yeah," Merle had replied, "I forgot about that."

She doesn't bring it up often. He tries not to remember it very often, because it hurts his head to think about. He figures he got a head injury at some point and it fucked his brain up to the point that whenever he thought about his tattoo, he'd be blinded and deafened by static. That sounds like something he’d do.

"You should get it removed," Heckuba said once, "or at least covered up. It's ugly."

"No," slipped from Merle mouth.

Heckuba sighed heavily. "Honestly... It's very ugly, and you dont remember how you got it or what it stands for. Why not?"

"It means something," Merle protested. He doesn't know what. "I'm not getting rid of it.

Heckuba doesn’t get another chance to say anything about it, because he goes to the Dwarf Store for some smokes he doesn’t need or want, and never comes back.

.

Davenport has a tattoo that he cannot look at.

Davenport has a lot of things he cannot look at.

.

Taako has a tattoo that he cannot look at.

It drives him a little batty, if he's honest. He knows that he shouldn't be seeing and hearing and speaking static about something that's literally a part of his skin. He tries to research, but he's but a mere idiot wizard and has no idea where to start and nobody he’s asked had any clue what it was about.

After a few months, he has to give up and focus on Sizzle It Up. He'd gotten so very popular, and has bookings across Faerun. He doesn’t have time to research something so petty as a weird tattoo.

Sazeed saw it sometimes. Taako loves flowy blouses--they were very in season this year--and had asked about it. He'd promptly regretted it when Taako just spoke static at him about it.

"Nevermind," he said, rubbing his eyes, "let's get on with the show. Can I maybe-?"

"Sazeed, my man," Taako said, "I've told you a hundred times, ain't no hard feelings, but it's Sizzle It Up with Taako, not with Taako and Saeed. It's off brand."

When he's running from Glamour Springs, he doesn't realize he's clutching the tattoo until he yelps in pain from his nails digging into his skin. He frantically checks to make sure he didn't ruin it, and is only barely assured when he doesn't see more red than usual there.

.

Lup no longer has a tattoo. One of the downsides to being a lich and getting ate by one's own fucking weapon.

She does not feel the sting of a tattoo she no longer has, but knows, deep in her soul, that her brother needs her. She screams and rages against the soft black fabric trapping her, and still cannot escape.

.

Lucretia has a tattoo that she can and does look at, frequently.

Her tattoo stings suddenly one day, and her heart freezes. She knows that three other people can feel the sting, too, and that they have no idea why or what it means.

Lucretia does, and scrambles to the Beaurau of Balance's courtyard to call a Sphere down to the planet below. She finds forty dead, the wagon she'd gifted Taako half-destroyed, and nothing else.

She presses a hand to her tattoo and suppresses her tears. Taako is resourceful, she knows. He's fine. She'll find him and the others later, when it's time.

Her tattoo slowly stops stinging.


End file.
